Elle's Studio Sketch Challenge - 6 months layout

Hello all!  As I am diligently working on finishing up my son's 'first year' album, I am finding great inspiration in sketch challenges.  A wonderful sketch always gives me such a good starting point and I absolutely fell in love with the sketch over at Elle's Studio this past week.  In fact, I already know I will be using it again on a larger 12x12 layout.

But for today, I have a 8x8 size to share.  I took the sketch and used it on two separate pages to create a cohesive double page layout.

For this page I added Doodlebug Designs chunky glitter around the edge of the MME title card to help it stand out from the background and look more cloud-like to compliment the clouds in the photo.

And here is what they will look like together in the album.

For this layout I mostly used My Mind's Eye products (Quite Contrary, Stella Rose, and Lime Twist collections).  But I also used some Echo Park (blue paper and letters), BoBunny (button), Crate Paper (brad), Doodlebug Designs (chunky glitter) and American Crafts (#6).

I am working really hard on using what I have.  There are always so many great new products coming out, and with all the new CHA releases I am really wanting some new crafting goodies.  However, I have been VERY good and have not bought any new papers/embellishments/etc. for the past 6 months in an effort to really focus on what I already have.  Are any of you trying to do the same?

For those of you, like me, who enjoy a great sketch challenge...Elle's Studio posts a new sketch every Thursday for you to be inspired by.  And if you haven't checked out their products before, you should take a peek.  I currently have my eye on their large journaling cards.  They are 4x6 size so I am thinking it would be a great (and fast) way to add a little journaling/memory keeping to my everyday photo albums and would help me feel like I am capturing more memories without necessarily having to fully scrapbook them all.  I think they will come in handy after our newest little one is born! :)

Have a wonderful day!  I am spending a quiet day at home with my youngest who has a bit of a cold.  Hoping to get some cleaning and maybe even a little more crafting done!  :)

BoBunny Layout Challenge - Messy Boy

Today I made some time to create a layout using BoBunny's current sketch challenge (HERE).  I took a really clean and simple approach.

This is a smaller 8x8 layout as I am diligently working on finishing up my youngest son's 'first year' album before our new baby arrives!  :)  I absolutely adore this picture of him feeding himself and this was quite a common look for him during those early self-feeding months. 

For this layout I combined several different BoBunny collections...Sophie, Peacock Lane, Flutter Butter, and of course no BoBunny project would be complete without some Double Dot paper!

Oh and have you seen their new CHA releases?!  They have an adorable new boy collection but my favorite is Alora...I just love the fun colors and cute birdhouses!

Have a wonderful weekend!

CARDS - Publication

This past summer one of my cards was published in CARDS magazine.  I always forget about sharing published cards because you have to wait until after the magazine comes out.  But as I was looking through my photos from the past year, I came across this one and had to share it as it is one of my favorites.

I just love this fun My Mind's Eye collection (Alphabet Soup).  I think the old school telephones are so cute with the little hearts in the middle of the dial.  In order to get the string to loop like a telephone cord, I used a thin point glue pen to draw the design on the paper (loop by loop) and laid the string down as I went. 

This July CARDS magazine is filled with a ton of great inspiration so if you didn't get it during the summer, it happens to be on clearance now for only $4.95 (normally $19.95).  You can check it out HERE.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!  We are enjoying some sunshine!

You Color My World

It's a little cold and dreary here today so I thought I'd share a super colorful layout with you all to lift my spirits.  :)

This layout is all American Crafts...Margarita and City Park collections as well as a variety of thickers!  I punched out all the glitter circle paper using 3 different size punches and then popped up random circles with 3d foam squares to give more dimension to the layout.  I am really happy how this turned out...although I couldn't quite figure out where/how to include my journaling.  I finally just decided it was more important to capture my thoughts somewhere than try to make the layout perfect.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!  Are you just drooling over some of the CHA releases?!  The AC Dear Lizzy Neopolitan collection is at the top of my list! :)

This Was the Year - 2011 (Photography)

Good morning!  We are surrounded by snow here in the Pacific Northwest.  It has been a lovely couple of days playing outside with my boys and snuggling up by the fire to play games and read books. 

As many of you may know, this past year I became greatly interested in improving my photography skills and took a great class over at Big Picture with Elisha Snow.  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn how to shoot better photos in manual mode with their DSLR camera. 

I thought today I would share a few of my favorite photos from 2011.  I recently created an album over at Paper Coterie called This Was the Year - 2011.  It was a great way to sum up our year and include highlights from each month.  I am hoping they continue to offer this album every year! 

Here are a few that I included in our album:

 This is the deer that we saw in our backyard the first morning in our new house...so exciting!

This photo is a little overexposed but I love how it makes the sculpture look so I left it as is.

And of course I had to include at least one picture from our snow days this week! :)

I'm hoping to get a little crafting done today since we are definitely not going anywhere.  Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back next week with a few cards to share!

Little Blessing - MME challenge #31

Hello all!  I know I have been absent for awhile but it is due to many wonderful things happening in our lives.  We moved, went on vacation, and found out we were having a NEW BABY!  :)  Then I wasn't feeling well during the first trimester and with trying to settle into our new home, I just haven't had much time for crafting (let alone blogging). 

However, I am feeling much better now and in total nesting mode...cleaning house, organizing, purging, and trying to finish up some crafting projects before the baby arrives.  Today, I was inspired to create a layout after I saw My Mind's Eye's new layout challenge.  You can check out the sketch/challenge HERE.

And here is what I came up with:

This layout mostly uses My Mind's Eye Lush collections as well as a little bit of So Sophie and Lime Twist.

  I just love this photo...my youngest son is so excited to get to be a Big Brother!

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll have more to share soon (promise)!